ECHO [Rewritten - NaNoWriMo '16]

Chapter 16: She Was In Love

A/N: Hey guys, so thank you so much for the views! Aaah! This is the fastest I've ever had a story go up and I'm so excited. If you are enjoying, please vote, comment, and share! I would love to know what you guys think so far :) Also, I'm hoping that tomorrow I will be able to write but I am working all day. I'm trying to write as much as possible today just in case, but my laptop is dying hahah. But I hope so, if I do write something it'll be a very short chapter. And totally not my 1,700 a day that I've been aiming for. Anyways, thank you! 23k words so far!

16 March 2016

Phoenix, Arizona

Wren

Once more I was peeling myself up from the floor. I stumbled as I stood, my head pounding. I looked around warily to see that Echo and Howl were struggling to stand as well. I flinched when I saw Echo's face, and the barely breathing Paiute next to her. Wait...they were dreaming. They weren't actually physically there. I looked over at Claw who was lying on his back, the wolf curled next to him. There was a cut on his cheek, and his eye was swelling. But that wasn't what disturbed. It was when I drew closer to him; I could hear echoes of screaming.

I backed away, startled. I looked over at Echo who was wincing. She looked at me, "What?"

Where did I start? I had so many questions, so many things I needed to know. Claw, ALDAR, what had happened in that world, my sister.... my sister. Echo must have seen something in my face because she pushed Howl away and straightened. Though half of her face was covered in blood, the look she leveled me with was full of confidence. Daring. Challenging. I rolled my shoulders back, "What was that just now?"

"Claw was a demon. Destroyed and created in a parallel part of our minds that holds our worst fears, darkness, and hatred. If you will." Echo replied.

"And that is where you became what you are?" I glanced down at her torso, "Where you got that scar?"

Echo shifted her weight. "Yes."

"What did you do to him?" I motioned to Claw.

"I revealed his worst fear to him," Echo replied haltingly. She didn't want to go into further detail.

I didn't care, "Is that what you do to your victims?"

Her eyes flashed, "Yes."

"What else can you do?" I asked. "And how can a mere human, as he said, do this?"

Echo closed her eyes and warily limped over to the couch. She scooped up Paiute in her arms and cradled him close to her chest. He looked horrendous; his fur matted in blood, lumps completely gone. But he was breathing. "I am merely a human. But the reason I survived that place, the reason I remained human, just without a soul is...I embraced what that world was. My fears, my anger. I embraced it all, like it was an old friend. Instead of turning insane and allowing the bloodlust to consume me, I accepted it all. The monsters hugged me, embraced me, and became part of me. In some ways, I am still in that world. It is a part of me, as much I am of it. And while I enjoy killing, I do not have the bloodlust that turns me into what Claw was."

I blinked. Interesting. But not as interesting as I'm sure her next answer would be. "And what the fuck happened with Pria?"

Echo visibly winced, "It's not what you think."

"Then tell me what the fuck happened!" I shouted, shaking in rage.

"I'm shaky on the details, but sometimes three years ago...Pria met Gia, one of Viper's aliases. They began to see each other casually, but things got more serious as time passed. It had been near eighteen months when Pria discovered a man stalking her – "